LEARNING AND INNOVATION SKILLS Learning and innovation skills increasingly are being recognized as those that separate students who are prepared for a more and more complex life and work environments in the 21st century, and those who are not. A focus on creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration is essential to prepare students for the future.
CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION
Think Creatively
Use a wide range of idea creation techniques (such as brainstorming)
Create new and worthwhile ideas (both incremental and radical concepts)
Elaborate, refine, analyze and evaluate their own ideas in order to improve and maximize creative effort
Work Creatively with Others
Develop, implement and communicate new ideas to others effectively
Be open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives; incorporate group input and feedback into the work
Demonstrate originality and inventiveness in work and understand the real world limits to adopting new ideas
View failure as an opportunity to learn; understand that creativity and innovation is a long-term, cyclical process of small successes and frequent mistakes
Implement Innovations
Act on creative ideas to make a tangible and useful contribution to the field in which the innovation will occur
CRITICAL THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING Higher order thinking, such as critical and creative thinking, refers to a set of cognitive skills or strategies that increases the probability of a desired outcome. In an information-rich society, the quality of one’s thought processes, particularly more complex thought, might be among the most important things that an individual brings to work and society. The skills for analyzing and interpreting knowledge have become increasingly valued.
Reason Effectively
Use various types of reasoning (inductive, deductive, etc.) as appropriate to the situation
Use Systems Thinking
Analyze how parts of a whole interact with each other to produce overall outcomes in complex systems
Make Judgments and Decisions
Effectively analyze and evaluate evidence, arguments, claims and beliefs
Analyze and evaluate major alternative points of view
Synthesize and make connections between information and arguments
Interpret information and draw conclusions based on the best analysis
Reflect critically on learning experiences and processes
Solve Problems
Solve different kinds of non-familiar problems in both conventional and innovative ways
Identify and ask significant questions that clarify various points of view and lead to better solutions
Tools for "Critical Thinking and Problem Solving":
Search engines and strategies
Electronic reference material (online libraries, databases, encyclopedias, atlases, almanacs, E-texts)
Primary Sources (text, graphic, audio, multimedia, and material culture
Data Analysis Data analysis is the ability to evaluate data across a range of media; recognize when data are needed; locate, analyze, and represent data effectively; and accomplish these functions using technology, communication networks, and electronic resources. Scientific Inquiry Scientific Inquiry is a multifaceted activity that involves making observations; posing scientific questions; examining various sources of information to discover what is already known; planning investigations; using tools to gather, analyze, and interpret evidence; proposing answers, explanations and predictions; connecting experimental evidence with existing scientific knowledge; and communicating and justifying the explanations. Systems ThinkingSystems thinking is a vantage point from which one sees a whole, a web of relationships, rather than focusing only on the detail of any particular piece. Events are seen in the larger context of a pattern that is unfolding over time. Systems thinking provides students with a more effective way of interpreting the complexities of the world in which they live-a world that is increasingly dynamic, global, and complex.
Learning and innovation skills increasingly are being recognized as those that separate students who are prepared for a more and more complex life and work environments in the 21st century, and those who are not. A focus on creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration is essential to prepare students for the future.
CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION
Think Creatively
Work Creatively with Others
Implement Innovations
CRITICAL THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING
Higher order thinking, such as critical and creative thinking, refers to a set of cognitive skills or strategies that increases the probability of a desired outcome. In an information-rich society, the quality of one’s thought processes, particularly more complex thought, might be among the most important things that an individual brings to work and society. The skills for analyzing and interpreting knowledge have become increasingly valued.
Reason Effectively
Use Systems Thinking
Make Judgments and Decisions
Solve Problems
COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION
Communicate Clearly
Collaborate with Others
* Search Engines and strategies
Data Analysis
Data analysis is the ability to evaluate data across a range of media; recognize when data are needed; locate, analyze, and represent data effectively; and accomplish these functions using technology, communication networks, and electronic resources.
Scientific Inquiry
Scientific Inquiry is a multifaceted activity that involves making observations; posing scientific questions; examining various sources of information to discover what is already known; planning investigations; using tools to gather, analyze, and interpret evidence; proposing answers, explanations and predictions; connecting experimental evidence with existing scientific knowledge; and communicating and justifying the explanations.
Systems ThinkingSystems thinking is a vantage point from which one sees a whole, a web of relationships, rather than focusing only on the detail of any particular piece. Events are seen in the larger context of a pattern that is unfolding over time. Systems thinking provides students with a more effective way of interpreting the complexities of the world in which they live-a world that is increasingly dynamic, global, and complex.